


The Shifter

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Daily SPN Prompts, M/M, Sam Doesn't Deal Well With Grief, Shifter, Substitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 18:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7117987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam's lost his brother.  Dean's in Hell.  It's been a month, and he's a mess.  But he doesn't care.  He just wants Dean back.</p><p>Then he thinks he sees Dean.  It's not Dean, but it's the closest Sam's ever likely to have again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shifter

**Author's Note:**

> This came from Daily Supernatural Prompts. The original prompt is here: http://dailyspnprompts.tumblr.com/post/144030553032/t-wincest-kinda-multichap
> 
> Obviously, I went in a different direction. Instead of being the gap year before season 8, this is in the four months before season 4. And it's a different shifter. I'm thinking about doing a sequel that would be closer to the original prompt.

At first, Sam was sure it was just the bottle of Jack that he’d used to fill his growling stomach. Then he realized that was four hours and at least three vomits ago. So it wasn’t booze-vision making him see Dean skulking in the shadows, slowly making his way toward the Impala.

Even hung over, even as desperate as he was to believe that this really was his brother, Sam was still enough of a hunter to get out with a gun drawn and trained on Dean’s heart. “Dean?”

“Not exactly?” Apparently-Not-Dean stopped and held his hands out in a non-threatening gesture. “I don’t know who I appear to be to you. I’m a shifter. But please, hear me out. I’m not looking to hurt anyone.”

Sam’s aim didn’t waver. “Dealt with your kind before. Every single time, my brother and I end up wanted for a new federal crime. Or at least one of us does. Give me one good reason to listen to you now.”

“Because if I wanted to hurt you or frame you for a crime, I’d know that gun isn’t loaded with silver and can’t hurt me, so I could easily overpower you, Sam.” He stopped, looking a little confused. “You’re Sam. You’re… you’re his… brother? I think… he didn’t want to leave you. That hurt worse than the actual dying.”

Now Sam’s hands were shaking. “Who are you? How did you get that form?”

“I’m a shifter,” he repeated. “We don’t exactly have identities of our own, usually. I needed a new form in a hurry, and I was in this house. All I could reach was some blood, and this tooth. It was enough to get the DNA, but there’s not much of a connection.”

“You just happened to find Dean’s tooth,” Sam repeated in disbelief.

“I’m sorry. I don’t have much of a connection with him, not like normal, but some stuff comes through. He’s…” The shifter looked away, swallowing hard. “He’s dead, isn’t he.”

“Yeah. About a month now,” Sam said, letting the gun drop. After all, the shifter knew it was useless.

“I’m sorry. He… I couldn’t get anything from him, not until I saw the car, and seeing you let me feel his love for you. I wasn’t looking for you.” The shifter shoved his hands in the pockets of his leather coat. “I’m sorry. You don’t need me here reminding you of what you lost.”

“Wait,” Sam said as the shifter turned away. “It’s… you’re not Dean, and I know it. But I’ve been a mess without him. It can’t possibly hurt worse having you here than it does being alone. Stay for a while. Let me… just let me pretend for an hour or two.” The shifter nodded and settled on the front seat of the Impala.

 

An hour or two turned into a couple days, a week, a month. The shifter – who Sam had taken to calling Dean after every attempt at anything else had failed – became more like Dean every day. Part of that was drawing on the connection formed. Part of that was Sam giving him advice, and the shifter being willing to take it.

One day, sitting in a motel room after saving the day, the shifter sat on one bed. “Sam?”

Sam sat on the other bed. Something about the voice made him think he’d want to be focused for this. “Yeah, Dean?”

“I’ve been having… some really weird memories, although I’m not so sure… help me understand what I’m getting?” the shifter said.

“Yeah, of course,” Sam said. It’s something he actually enjoyed doing, going through memories with the shifter.

“I, um, this is…” the shifter ran a hand over Dean’s face. “You and Dean. You’re brothers, right?”

“Yeah, Dean. We’re brothers. I know you know that, you got that almost right away,” Sam said.

“I know, but… if your brothers, then why am I remembering…” The shifter trailed off again, and Sam recognized the body language. Dean was seriously weirded out by something. “Dean’s got a lot of memories in here about… kissing?”

Okay, awkward thing to discuss with little brother, but not that bad. “Dean kissed a lot of people. What aren’t you understanding?”

“It’s not… he’s got a lot of memories of kissing you,” the shifter said.

Well, that was weird. “He did when we were kids, but we kinda grew out of it, or Dad made him knock it off because I was too old, or something.”

“That’s not what I meant,” the shifter said. There was a pause where Sam tried to figure out what else it could be. “It didn’t… always stop at kissing.”

“What…?” Sam said.

The shifter looked really embarrassed now. “Not memories, then. I’m sorry. I…”

Sam’s hand closed around the shifter’s wrist. “Don’t. Don’t leave me.” The shifter settled back down, and Sam let go. “Dean thought about me like that? Really?”

“I assume so, it feels enough like his thoughts that I thought they were his memories,” the shifter said. “But I guess… maybe it’s coming from me? I’ve never spent this long in the same skin, with someone giving me advice on how to be that person better. Maybe this imprinting can work both ways, and I’m taking the strong love he had for you and twisting it to my own perspective. I don’t know, Sam. It feels like it’s coming from him, but I honestly don’t know.”

“Huh. That’s…” Sam couldn’t blame Dean for not telling him anything, if it was Dean’s fantasies. “That makes this complicated. I have no idea how to sort through this. You’re playing a role here, but I know that. And you could stop any time if you wanted to.”

“And I know it’s Dean you really want, but that you’re willing to let me play the role if it means you don’t have to be alone,” the shifter agreed. “I’m not deceiving you, you’re not deceiving me. I don’t see where it’s all that complicated.”

“I… I guess. And you’re not really my brother, so…”

The look on the shifter’s face was pure Dean exasperation. “Seriously? You want Dean and that’s what was stopping you?”

“Well, sort of, I mean, I know it’s illegal and in most circumstances it’s considered wrong, and I know why that is. But the only thing actually stopping me was that I could never figure out how or when to tell my brother that I wanted him to ignore one of the few laws we don’t break on a regular basis and fuck me.”

“Fair enough.”

“So…” Sam leaned forward. “Knowing that I’m using you to fill the brother-shaped hole in my life, do you want to kiss me?”

The shifter nodded. “Knowing that I’m not your brother, I’m just a monster playing the part, do you want me to?”

Sam thought about it. Did he want it? Hell yeah. But he was having a lot more trouble convincing himself that it was right. “Let’s start off small. I’m not sure I can actually go through with this, not all the way, but I’m willing to give it a shot if you are.”

 

Dean went to Bobby first. He’d have to track Sam down, and Bobby tended to stay in one place. Bobby would also test him. Dean thought he was real, but Bobby would probably be able to shove away any doubt.

Sure enough, once Dean convinced Bobby to test him instead of shooting him straight away, Bobby was extremely thorough. The last test made Dean laugh once he was done sputtering. Pure silver flask, containing a mixture of holy water, salt, and whiskey. “It’s me, Bobby. I’m back. Do you know where I can find Sam?”

“Kid took off, won’t answer his phone, leaves me messages every few days sayin’ he’s alive but nothing else.” Dean had figured that would happen. He went to Bobby’s ancient computer. It wasn’t Sam’s laptop, but it was better than nothing. “Been hearing rumors, though. They don’t make a lick of sense.”

“Yeah? Why not?” Dean asked as he found the number he was looking for.

“Because the rumors say he’s been runnin’ with you. Which if I didn’t know you were dead would be perfectly normal, but you were.”

 

It didn’t take Dean long to find Sam. When he did, he was in for a series of surprises.

First, Sam was kissing someone and had her backed up against the Impala. That wasn’t really Sam’s style.

Second, when Sam moved a little, Dean could see that he’d used the wrong pronoun. Sam was kissing a dude. It’s not that Dean gave a crap. It’s just that he’d never known Sam to show any interest in kissing dudes before, and the one time they hadn’t been talking about everything in their lives, Sam had spent most of it with a smoking hot girl.

Third, he couldn’t see the guy all that well, but he could see the moment the guy pulled away from Sam and said something. And then Sam turned and looked straight at where Dean was standing. “You’re sure?”

“Not exactly a mistake I could make.” Fourth surprise: the guy’s voice was identical to Dean’s. “It’s been fun, Sam. But it’s time for me to move on.”

Dean expected Sam to argue, to fight for the guy to stay. Instead, Sam just said, “Are you gonna be okay? You’ve got…”

“Yeah, of course, I’ve got someone else I can be. Never been one person this long before. People like me, we don’t get attachments, Sam. You’ve got your brother, it’s time.” So Sam had hooked up with… what, a drifter? He wasn’t a hunter. Something was very weird here.

“Yeah, I… thanks. For everything. If you need help…” Sam said.

“I know, I’ll call you.” The guy looked over to Dean again. “You know he’s listening to this, right?”

“He…” Sam laughed. “I should have.” Sam leaned forward and kissed the guy. “That one’s for you. Just you.”

The guy left, and as he walked away, Dean could see that he looked like him, too. He didn’t have long to stare and wonder, though, as Sam came barreling toward him and wrapped him up in a giant hug. “Dean! I am so glad to see you. Now, don’t take this the wrong way, man, but how are you here?”

“Tracked the GPS on your phone, Wedge,” Dean said, holding his brother tight. Four months of not seeing Sam apparently turned Dean into a big girl. Who cared.

“No, I get that, how you’re here in this particular place. Never could hide from you for long, even when we were kids playing hide-and-seek,” Sam said. “I meant, how are you here? On Earth?”

“No idea. I woke up in my grave – speaking of which, why’d I have a grave, Sammy?” Dean asked. It had been bugging him.

Sam just shrugged. “Why’d you sell your soul to bring me back instead of burning me? You really think I could just let you go, to Hell?”

“Yes! You were supposed to go have a long, happy life!” Dean said.

Sam shook his head. “Not happening, Dean. Not without you.”

“What about that guy you were with?” Dean asked.

Sam leaned against the Impala, not meeting Dean’s eyes. “It’s kind of a long story, and you’re gonna kick my ass for it. I’ll tell you everything, I will. Just can it please wait until tomorrow?”

“Sam…”

Sam sighed. “At least until you’ve finished telling me how you’re back?”

“Fine.” Dean didn’t like the sound of this, and he really wanted to push, but it would be easier with Sam in a cooperative mood. “So I woke up in my grave, dug out. Headed for civilization to get some money and a phone and got assaulted by this really annoying loud noise. Once that was gone, I headed for Bobby. He’s looking into the noise and some other things, ran every test he could think of or invent on me to make sure I’m the real thing, but the truth is, I got nothin’.”

Sam nodded. “So we look into it, see if we can figure out the strings before they get yanked?”

“Exactly. Bobby’s already on it, wants me to bring you to help now that I found you. You on a hunt here?” Dean asked.

“Nope. He and I tended to not stay in one place very long, and we were just passing through while we looked for a lead on Lilith or some other hunt,” Sam said.

“So. That guy…”

Sam let out a long breath. “Been riding with him three months. It’s not… this isn’t what you seem to think it is. I’ll probably never see him again, and neither of us is gonna care. Probably for the best, really, because I wouldn’t recognize him if we did. Probably try to kill him. And we weren’t… what you saw is as far as things ever went. Never felt right to go any farther.”

“Okay, not really any of my business what you’re doing or who you’re doing it with, Sammy. Only part that I’m asking about is why he was basically a clone of me,” Dean said.

“Not a clone. Doppelganger.”

Dean felt like someone had thrown cold water on him. “What, like…”

“Shifter, yeah. He needed to shift and he was…” Sam cut off, swallowing hard. “He was in the house where you died, not long after. Your blood was all over the place, and he found a tooth, so he was able to become you.”

Dean shook his head. “I honestly don’t know which is weirder here, a shifter just happening to find my leftover DNA when he needed to shift and then running into you, you hooking up with that shifter, or that you didn’t make him shift away from me first.”

“That would’ve defeated the purpose,” Sam said, and Dean wasn’t entirely certain Sam meant for him to hear it. Much louder, he said, “Yeah, that’s how he knew you were there and listening. The shifter connection thing.”

“Defeated the…” Dean wasn’t exactly the quickest on the uptake, but there weren’t just a whole lot of ways to misunderstand that. “Were you ever gonna tell me about this?”

“When?” Sam said, standing up to walk a few steps away. “When was I supposed to? After Dad died? When you were supposed to kill me if you couldn’t stop Azazel’s plan? Hell, telling you then, I was half afraid it might make you think it was already too late! Or after you sold your soul, going to Hell at the end of the year? Make it hurt even worse than it did?” Sam stopped for breath. Dean didn’t have an answer for that. “And how? How the hell do you tell your brother something like that?”

Dean sighed. He couldn’t deny Sam’s point. “If I knew the answer to that question, I’d have said something to you – after that crap with the faith healer and the reaper.”

“I couldn’t have said anything then, I was still in denial or something. It wasn’t until you coded after the wreck that I…”

“Sammy.” Dean waited until Sam was looking at him. “I wouldn’t have told you that you wanted to kiss me.”

“Of course not, you couldn’t have known,” Sam said.

Dean rolled his eyes. “Sam.”

“What?”

“Settle down and think for a minute,” Dean said.

“Okay.” Sam took a couple of deep breaths. Dean could see the moment he’d settled down enough for his enormous brain to turn back on. “Really?”

“Yeah. So no ass-kicking tonight.” Dean smirked. “Unless you tell me that kissing fake-me has cured you of your desire to kiss real-me.”

“No, of course not.” Sam smiled at him. “The shifter was never really sure whether he was picking up on it from you or if it was coming from him.”

Dean shrugged. “It was there to get from me. Can’t say for sure what he was thinking, so could be both.”

“So…”

Dean went and leaned against the Impala. “You coming, geek boy?” Sam came over, rolling his eyes at the nickname. “Sam… you sure you want this? I don’t wanna start this if you’re just gonna change your mind in the morning.”

“Dean. I’ve been kissing you for two months now. Yeah, it wasn’t really you, but it was you in my head.” Sam paused, his face screwing up as he realized how weird that sounded. “The point is if I were gonna change my mind, I’d have done it by now.”

“Fair enough,” Dean said. He reached up and pulled Sam’s head down, planting a kiss on his lips.

**Author's Note:**

> I played a little fast and loose with shifter lore. Hopefully, not too much.
> 
> Comments are awesome!


End file.
